Conventionally, a slide fastener is used for opening and closing openings of various articles such as clothes and bags. Generally, the slide fastener includes a pair of left and right fastener stringers in which element rows are formed along opposed tape-side edges of left and right fastener tapes, and a slider inserted into the element rows. By sliding a slider in a coupling direction or a separating direction of fastener elements along the element rows, the slide fastener can be closed or opened.
There exist various kinds of sliders used for the slide fastener having different structures and functions. As typical types of sliders, there are known a slider having a locking mechanism by means of a locking pawl, and a free slider having no locking mechanism.
As the slider having the locking mechanism, a slider disclosed in WO 2010/70744 A (Patent Document 1) is known.
For example, the slider described in Patent Document 1 includes a slider body to which shoulder-opening-side tip portions (front ends) of upper and lower wing plates are connected through a diamond, a tab turnably held by the slider body, and a locking pawl provided at its one end with a pawl.
Placed on the upper wing plate of the slider body in Patent Document 1 are left and right tab holding portions for holding the tab, an insertion groove into which the locking pawl is inserted, a swaging portion to which the other end of the locking pawl is swaged and fixed, and a pawl hole into which a pawl of the locking pawl is inserted and through which the pawl projects into an element guide path. An upper flange is suspended toward a lower wing plate from left and right side edges of an upper wing plate in the slider body, and a lower flange stands toward an upper wing plate from left and right side edges of the lower wing plate.
In Patent Document 1, a shaft of the tab is provided with a cam portion having a cam-shaped cross section. The locking pawl is attached to the slider body by swaging and fixing the other end of the locking pawl to the slider body by a swaging portion of the slider body in a state where the pawl of the locking pawl is inserted into the pawl hole of the upper wing plate and the shaft of the tab is covered from above.
In the slider having such a locking pawl, in a state where the slider is not slid and the tab inclines toward a rear opening of the slider, the pawl of the locking pawl projects into the element guide path of the slider body and engages with the element rows. Therefore, the slider is prevented from freely sliding with respect to the element rows, and a stopped state of the slider is maintained.
When the tab is made to stand from the inclined state to slide the slider, the cam portion placed on the shaft of the tab brings up the locking pawl to pull the pawl out from the element guide path. Therefore, the engagement between the pawl and the element rows is released, and the slider can smoothly slide along the element rows.
The fastener stringer having no locking mechanism is disclosed in JP 11-89612 A (Patent Document 2) for example. The slider described in this Patent Document 2 includes a slider body to which front ends of upper and lower wing plates are connected through a diamond, and a tab turnably held on the slider body.
A tab attaching post is integrally formed, in a cantilever manner, on the upper wing plate of the slider body in Patent Document 2. A space into which a shaft of the tab can be inserted is provided between a tip (free end) of the tab attaching post and the upper wing plate. The tab is attached to the slider body by plastically deforming the tab attaching post such that the space between the tip of the tab attaching post and the upper wing plate is narrowed after the shaft of the tab is inserted between the tab attaching post and the upper wing plate through the space.
Also in the slider body of Patent Document 2, an upper flange is suspended toward the lower wing plate from left and right side edges of the upper wing plate, and a lower flange stands toward the upper wing plate on left and right side edges of the lower wing plate.
At present, uses and intended purposes of the slide fastener are very wide, and various types of slide fasteners having different structures and functions are used in accordance with respective uses and intended purposes.
A so-called normal type slide fastener is widely used for clothes and bags. In the case of this normal type slide fastener, element rows are placed on a tape-side edge on the side of a first tape face (tape surface) which is exposed outside of a fastener tape, and the element rows are formed by attaching fastener elements of the element rows to the tape-side edge in a state where coupling heads of the fastener elements project outward from a tape-side end edge.
Hence, according to the normal type slide fastener, at least portions of the fastener elements can be seen from outside when the left and right element rows are coupled to each other. For such a normal type slide fastener, the sliders described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are used.
In contrast with such a normal type slide fastener, there are known a hiding type slide fastener and a back-side using type slide fastener as slide fasteners in which fastener elements are hidden so that they cannot be seen from outside when the left and right element rows are coupled to each other.
In the hiding type slide fastener (hereinafter, simply referred to as “hiding-slide fastener”), a fastener element is attached to a first tape face of an element attaching portion in a state where a coupling head of the fastener element is directed to a tape main body with respect to a band-shaped fastener tape and thereafter, the fastener tape is bent into a substantially U-shape at a boundary between the tape main body and the element attaching portion such that a second tape face comes inside, and the coupling head projects outward from a tape bending portion of the fastener tape, thereby configuring a fastener stringer for the hiding-slide fastener.
Two fastener stringers configured in this manner are combined with each other, sliders as described in JP 2006-15069 A (Patent Document 3) for example are inserted into left and right element rows, and the hiding-slide fastener is configured. According to such a hiding-slide fastener, when left and right element rows are coupled to each other, tape bending portions of left and right fastener tapes come into close contact with each other. According to this, the coupled element rows are covered with and hidden by the fastener tapes so that the element rows cannot be seen from outside.
According to the back-side using type slide fastener, element rows are placed on tape-side edge of a second tape face (tape back face) which is not exposed outside of fastener tapes. When the left and right element rows are coupled to each other, opposed tape-side edges of left and right fastener tapes come into close contact with or approach each other. According to this, the coupled element rows are covered with and hidden by the fastener tapes so that the element rows cannot be seen from outside. One example of a slider used for such a back-side using type slide fastener is described in JP 2009-56076 A (Patent Document 4).